Andrew Yang: Universal Basic Income Is The Only Way To Take On Corporate Power

Election 2020 Debate — Democratic presidential candidate entrepreneur Andrew Yang gives his closing statement Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019, during a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by ABC at Texas Southern University in Houston.

Arjun Singh is a producer for Boston Public Radio. A California native, Arjun moved to Boston to study international relations at Boston University. Prior to working at WGBH, Arjun worked at a tech company and for a political campaign.

September 16, 2019

Updated October 18, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants voters to know one thing about him: If he is elected, he will give every American $1,000 a month.

Yang’s signature policy of promising a universal basic income (UBI) to all Americans, which he calls the Freedom Dividend, was met with laughter from his opponents at the Democratic debate in Houston last week. However, his campaign said that after Yang announced during the debate the launch of a contest that would give $120,000 worth of dividends to 10 families for a year, 450,000 people signed up to enter the contest on his website.

“The feedback has been incredible. We’ve had hundreds of thousands of Americans sign up because they know that a $1,000 a month would be a game changer,” Yang said during an interview with Boston Public Radio on Monday.

“This is a way that we can make our people stronger, healthier, better educated [and] mentally healthier. And it’s about the only effective way to do so, given at this point our government has been completely overrun by corporate interests,” said Yang, who, while still far behind the front runners in national polling, has slowly worked his way from a literal unknown to currently polling at 3 percent nationally, according to RealClearPolitics.

The dividend is grounded in Alaska’s Permanent Fund, a state operated fund that doles out dividends based on the state’s oil profits. Yang has said he believes that the dividend, which he would fund with a value-added tax on technology, will be the easiest way to inject capital back into the American economy and make sure that economic gains are being felt by a majority of Americans.

It is not without its critics, however. Many on the left have taken grievance with the fact that to receive a freedom dividend, an American cannot be receiving another form of government sponsored benefits such as food stamps. On the right, some argue that it is another government benefit that is untenable.

To critics, Yang has pointed to the examples he’s seen in his own life. As part of his campaign, Yang has provided a few families with freedom dividends, and he said the results have aligned with what he hoped with happened.

“Kyle Christensen in Iowa Falls, who’s taking care of his ailing mom who’s recovering from cancer, I saw him during my last trip and he said he spent some of the money on a guitar, and he was beaming. He said he’s been playing shows for the first time in years,” Yang said. “For him, it was a guitar. For Jodi Fassi, in New Hampshire it was car repairs. For Mallory Shannon in Florida, it was tuition to go back to school.”